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Speaking about how he first realised something wasn’t right, Gareth added: “I think about a year ago, probably longer than that, I started to feel really unwell and I just thought first of all, ‘I’m 57, I’m very stressed, I have a lot going on, you are getting a bit run down’.

“There was nothing I could do, I needed to keep working.

“I was working six days a week and doing an awful lot of stuff.

“I began to realise there were some changes starting to happen.

“I began to realise I was losing a lot of power in my left hand, that my left foot was beginning to drag and it felt heavier than the right one.

“And then strange things would happen, I noticed in the morning if I was having mushrooms for my breakfast that I couldn’t actually get the fork into the mushroom. I would have to use the right hand. The mushrooms used to slide off the plate.

“If I was cutting the toenails on my left foot I had to use my right hand because the left hand wouldn’t actually hold the scissors properly.

“You start looking up these things and I started thinking I had a stroke and I thought I better go and see this through.

“I went to the doctor, who has been a great friend of mine for most of my life, and I said, ‘Look I’m not feeling very well’.

“He said, ‘Ok let’s examine this’ and went through a load of clinical tests with me.

“And all of this time in the back of my head I thought, ‘No this is not a stroke, it’s Parkinson’s’. I felt that.

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“Every test that was done, the staff genuinely wanted it to come back and tell them, ‘This is it, we can put you on an antibiotic and we can get rid of it’.

“I was told on the Friday that everything had come back clear, which was bizarre.

“I looked at them and said, ‘It is MSA isn’t it?’ and they said, ‘Yes it is’.

“Everyone with MSA presents differently.

“The speed of deterioration and progress of it seems to be different for individuals.

“The prognosis is very closely guarded. There can’t be a general prognosis because it’s down to some many things.”

“I thought I might get another six months, a year out if it.

“It’s OK to begin talking, but after about 15 to 20 minutes you get a crackle and things begin to break a bit.

“I’m beginning to have a problem with my swallowing which is very worrying.”

What is MSA?

Multiple system atrophy (MSA), also known as Shy–Drager syndrome, is a rare progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by a combination of symptoms including tremors, low and high blood pressure, rigid muscles, dizziness, blackouts and respiratory problems.

It affects both the autonomic nervous system and movement.

It can be difficult to diagnose during its early stages and usually ends in the patient’s death by seven to 10 years after diagnosis.

It sees progressive loss of function and death of different types of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

MSA is a rare disease with around 3,300 people in Ireland and the UK with the illness.

It is a progressive illness which according to statistics mainly targets those between the ages of 50 and 70.

There is no therapy that can reverse or stop the progression of the disease but medication can help with the symptoms.